- Joined
- Aug 24, 2014
- Messages
- 273
I want to thank Ryan and Robbie for letting us be sponsors of Rokslide for the last four years. The audience here is a good sounding board for us to gather information about what hunters are thinking and how they consume content.
Today we launched a new platform we have been working on for many years. It is called Fresh Tracks+, which is what the name implies; it contains our video show, Fresh Tracks, plus a lot more.
We want people to have other ways to watch our content without having to give their personal information to ad-base big tech companies. We pay for content in one of three ways:
Some people are fine paying for content under options #1 and/or #2. I get that; it is how we have been trained since the first radio shows were funded by ads and when the first websites started tracking our activities. Yet, many of us, myself included, have tired of our time and privacy being the currency by which we pay for content. Thus, we are adding an option for those who dislike having to pay for content with your time and personal information.
Below are some highlights of why we have done this and why we are adding it as another option, rather than a replacement of existing options.
There are a lot of other reasons why we are doing this. Anyone who thinks that guns, knifes, dead animals, cutting meat, etc is going to have a home on popular media distribution platforms five years from now has a more optimistic view of these ad-based tech companies than I do. Just a reality when tech companies are driven by ad revenue and they are hypersensitive to those who complain about hunting and shooting content.
I could go on and on. We know it is not for everyone, but for many, it is an attractive option. We still have the free platforms for those who prefer to pay big tech companies with their time and personal information.
What you see today has all seasons of Fresh Tracks, including the new Season 9 (no, it won't be going to Amazon). You will find the four seasons of our old show, On Your Own Adventures. You will find our "Lessons Learned" videos, our new fishing series, "Any Fin Goes," our films, many live events, some upcoming content that will be exclusive to FT+, and the content that will roll out on the ad-based platforms later on will be available on FT+ before it is available on YT or FB.
We are adding APPS for your phones and your smart TVs, which should be available in the next month. We hope people will sign up directly with us, to avoid paying 30% to the app platforms, then go download the apps after signing up with us.
Thanks for all the support over the years. Lots more to come on this project.
Oh, I almost forgot, if you want to check it out, here is the link - https://www.freshtracks.tv/
Today we launched a new platform we have been working on for many years. It is called Fresh Tracks+, which is what the name implies; it contains our video show, Fresh Tracks, plus a lot more.
We want people to have other ways to watch our content without having to give their personal information to ad-base big tech companies. We pay for content in one of three ways:
1. With our time by having to sit through ads that mean nothing to us, and/or....
2. With our personal information and privacy by allowing these ad-based big tech companies to build profiles about us based on our behaviors, that these big tech companies then sell/rent our personal information for huge sums of money, or....
3. With a small monthly or annual fee that eliminates items #1 an #2 above.
Some people are fine paying for content under options #1 and/or #2. I get that; it is how we have been trained since the first radio shows were funded by ads and when the first websites started tracking our activities. Yet, many of us, myself included, have tired of our time and privacy being the currency by which we pay for content. Thus, we are adding an option for those who dislike having to pay for content with your time and personal information.
Below are some highlights of why we have done this and why we are adding it as another option, rather than a replacement of existing options.
1. I believe you should be able to watch content without worrying who is following you around for the sake of skimming your personal information and using that to serve you the next content items or to serve you ads. Worse yet, they develop profiles about you and they rent/sell that profile information to advertisers. I've always hated that and I hate it more each day.
Unfortunately, YouTube is the biggest video distribution platform and likely always will be. And YouTube is the second biggest violator of your personal information and privacy, following the leader of the pack, Facebook. Those are two necessary evils in reaching large audiences.
Yet, if you are like me and you don't want to pay for content with your privacy and personal information, then this new Fresh Tracks+ option is a way for you to enjoy our content without that worry. Knowing some people would rather pay for their content with their time (ads) and their privacy and personal information, we will continue to keep those other platforms in place and allow people to view our content there, albeit released at later dates than when it premiers on FT+.
2. In the surveys, a large number of you answered the same way I did - that you value your time and you would like an option where you don't have to sit through ads about products/services that you have no interest in. I pay a lot of small monthly or annual subscription fees to get my news and other content I want. I no longer have to deal with ads, intrusions, etc. This is a way for people to avoid ads. Some of our old content we put on FT+ will have company logos, as it is prohibitive to go and remove every company presence in that old stuff. But, the new content is being exported during edits as ad-free.
3. Many of you said you want all our content in one place. I share your frustration when we put a 4-episode hunt on YouTube, only to have YouTube scatter all four episodes and not allow us to link them in sequence. On FT+, everything will be in one place and easy to find.
4. I'm tired of being throttled by FB and YT. They don't "censor" us, per se, but they do demonetize hunting/shooting content, which is the same as censorship when using platforms that rely on ads for moving up the algorithm. Why would YT give a demonetized video any positive score in the algorithm if it is not earning any revenue due to their demonetization of "sensitive content?" Answer - they don't push it through the algorithm, rather it goes into a dark hole. This is their backdoor way of censoring content without being accused of censoring. Fine, their platforms and I agreed to their terms of use. But, doesn't mean I'm going to stand still while they do it. Thus, another reason for FT+.
There are a lot of other reasons why we are doing this. Anyone who thinks that guns, knifes, dead animals, cutting meat, etc is going to have a home on popular media distribution platforms five years from now has a more optimistic view of these ad-based tech companies than I do. Just a reality when tech companies are driven by ad revenue and they are hypersensitive to those who complain about hunting and shooting content.
I could go on and on. We know it is not for everyone, but for many, it is an attractive option. We still have the free platforms for those who prefer to pay big tech companies with their time and personal information.
What you see today has all seasons of Fresh Tracks, including the new Season 9 (no, it won't be going to Amazon). You will find the four seasons of our old show, On Your Own Adventures. You will find our "Lessons Learned" videos, our new fishing series, "Any Fin Goes," our films, many live events, some upcoming content that will be exclusive to FT+, and the content that will roll out on the ad-based platforms later on will be available on FT+ before it is available on YT or FB.
We are adding APPS for your phones and your smart TVs, which should be available in the next month. We hope people will sign up directly with us, to avoid paying 30% to the app platforms, then go download the apps after signing up with us.
Thanks for all the support over the years. Lots more to come on this project.
Oh, I almost forgot, if you want to check it out, here is the link - https://www.freshtracks.tv/
